My New Stall design - Summer & of course Happy Easter

Hi all, 

Just thought I'd put up a pic of my new stall layout for this summers event's, so you can recognise me! hehe and to get any feedback too..

Any advice/compliments etc, would be gratefully received!

I have used Cath Kidston shabby chic Florali (blue) fabric as the table cover, and this is over a base white sheet cloth so it falls to the floor etc. 

I have placed various homewares/decor (shabby chic style) which I feel compliments my new summer collections well. Placed a few pieces in their gift boxes, and a few loose too, as I think people like to see how it is packaged but also to touch/try it on (which I feel loose pieces encourage this)..

My Vintage Porcelain collection is on the right hand side, see pic below for close up of this..

I have used a REAL Cath kidston tea cup (blue floral) as the focal item - filled with flying saucer sherbert sweets and an earring stand with the pink floral vintage earrings, an ikea photo frame, filled with pale pink felt to place the bracelets onto in their boxes. A few busts for the necklaces and a pebble with one bracelet loose on. 

Necklace £50, Pendant £20, Bracelet £39, Earrings £18. Available in pink, royal blue, navy blue, purple or red.

My Summer of Love collection is in the centre of the stall in the perspex display unit, see pic

Thankfully, I already had the large white painted LOVE letters, from a lady who I stock some of her handmade plaques/lettering from already! Perfect! The collection is a very colourful collection and has sold well so far, on my home sale last week, I sold the full set below...very bright and summery!
Necklace £30, Bracelet £25, Earrings £10
(btw, check out my new pink heart labels...I think they're cute)

(available in millefiori too, this is turquoise!)

On the far left of my stall, in the centre of a large wicker heart is my added Fleur collection, available in baby pink, ivory or peach freshwater pearls, featuring a Solid silver (Karen Hilltribe) flower charm. Beautiful! This collection was added by me the other week as I just couldn't resist making another! I do find it hard to stop my creativeness! there are so many lovely beads and designs...it's hard to only make 3/or 4 collections per season! hehe..
Bracelet £40, Pendant £25, Earrings £15.

In front of the Summer of Love collection is my seashell collection, on a real large seashell! 

Sterling silver tipped seashell pendant on freshwater pearl/seed beaded necklace/bracelet, with a Karen Hilltribe silver toggle clasp. Great for the beach! 

Necklace £40, Bracelet £32, Earrings £15. 

Now below are my Lush Lariats collection...they have been very popular already too, Most of my galleries have got at least three of various colours with them. I can do them in all different colours, they are fab! About 2m of thin leather with freshwater pearls scattered along it, either natural or coloured leather. £30 each. You can wear them wrapped around like a scarf for a necklace, or wrapped around your wrist for a pretty bracelet. Very versatile and beautiful for finishing off any outfit..just throw it on! adds some glamour instantly..

That's all for now folks! hehe...off to church and to see hubby's family now for a lovely easter day...Happy Easter all!! have a good one! 

What a fab saturday...cupcakes, jewellery deliveries, sunshine and family time..

Hi all,

It's been a while since I've had such a good saturday, everything was pretty much great..

Last night (fri) I found out that I'd won some cupcakes from Daisy Cupcakes, Warwick, so I went to collect them first at 11ish am.
Here is the fab creator of these yummy cupcakes herself..

I was invited into her world...through her pretty little garden, up some steps into a fab-ly converted (don't want to call it but is kinda is) shed, inside was a glamorous shabby chic mini lounge with pretty things everywhere you looked, very similar to how I am having my stall this summer...funny that! lots of vintage finds and cath kidston esque pieces around...but the centrepieces of that whole place were her beautiful cupcakes, dotted around on lovely cake stands, trays, pretty plates...perfect! very welcoming and peaceful. She uses her cupcake chic shed for consultations with brides  etc, would love to have one for my jewellery the same! I'm sure the time will come!

What brilliant start to the day...Paul (hubby) and Theo, waited in the car, and then we went for drive to warwick town centre for our next visit...this time to Corina, Corina...vintage clothes & accessories galore.. Well worth a visit! they have such unique dresses/outfits for those special occasions when you want something truly amazing like weddings, balls, fancy dress etc..
Anyway, I was popping in to drop off some jewellery that I am supplying for the shop, yey! I left 11 pieces of really pretty pieces with Ella, the owner, and even got one request from her for a leather and pearl lariat (£35) like the one I was wearing today...(you can kinda see it in the small pic below of me with my cupcakes in the pretty consultation room of Daisy Cupcakes)

Then it was time for lunch...grabbed a subway sandwich (mmm steak and cheese), and headed to Warwick Park (St Nicholas) to sit in the sun, hopefully whilst Theo napped in his pram...

Altho it didn't got to plan exactly as we needed change for the machine (£3 or so) and we only had about 50p on us! always the way! 

So decided to go a get cash out at Sainsburys, Warwick, done! 

Came back but now there wasn't any parking! good times!

So decided to go instead to Myton Fields, the park (or realistically field is correct!) across the river from St Nicholas park...and the bonus is you can drive up to the riverbank and sit in your car/picnic etc next to the river's edge...nice..

Second bonus, I went to the pay and display meter to put in £3.50 for 4hours or something like that, and it said 15mins for 10p, or £3.50 for 4hrs, £4.50 for 5 or more hrs, so I thought I wonder if I put £1, whether it would give me 10x15mins, so 150mins, more than enough for lunch/naptime...put it in, and wow, even better, for some reason it said, 22.45pm! mad! so for £1 I got up until 10.45 at night! The lady next to me on the other machine, just paid £4.50 for 5hrs...shame! I managed to tell the lady behind her about it tho, and she was very pleased! 

So we drove to the river bank and parked up, by which time theo had drifted off to napland in his car seat, leaving us to eat our subway in the sunshine, on a fishing mooring by the river...lovely and peaceful and nice to spend time with the hubby relaxing...did a little sunbathing too/napping lying on the grass...very nice! and very hot for April! like a summer's day!

On waking, Theo, Paul and I, went over the road/river to the main park, theo loved the swings and play park area, and we even went for a ride on the amusements train there, 70p each, wasn't too bad! so we splashed out! why not..live on the edge..hehe..

About 3pm, we returned to our car, told many other people about the £1 parking story, and they were all very pleased! and we even gave away our ticket to a very happy man! all in all a blessed day..

We finished it off by popping to the Handmade Kenilworth market...at St John's church, Kenilworth, 10-4pm, of course! 

Lots of lovely crafters/creations on display, pity I didn't have the money to buy something from everyones! There was a great little stall there, where the guy made shabby chic style rustic pieces like corner units, towel rails, newspaper racks, trays, plate cake stands etc...really pretty! using reclaimed wood too. Fab idea! and really great workmanship too...shame I didn't grab his companies name! but will email Handmade market and see if he has a web page! 

anyways, it was a really great saturday, and had fun times, free things and sunshine, what more can you ask for! well...no, it was excellent! 

Now for that late night fish and chips dinner (oven made)...mm..(well writing a blog takes over a little!) 

Oh and a baby, just put him back to sleep now after just waking up snuffly and crying, after bedtime at 7.30pm..vics, paracetamol and water...night Theo...x

I won some handmade cupcakes...!

Hi,
Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time 'liking' facebook business/craft pages, and 'following' new blogs of interest to me etc...trying to boost my profile as well as getting in contact with some fab designers/crafters...

Anyway, one of them were Daisy Cupcakes, From Warwick, I liked them on their facebook page, and just before going to bed, checked out their main website, and noticed their 'tweet' (twitter - cupcakedaisyUK) saying Congrats to our 200th liker - Laura Kent Jewellery, you've won 6 cupcakes..!!

Was so excited, think my hubby thought I was a bit mad! actually squeaked with excitement and ran upstairs to tell him! I haven't won something in ages! and as I was just admiring them it was great to have won them!!

I have also contacted her about possibly having some on my stall as decoration and advertising her cupcakes too, as my stall for fairs is usually shabby chic style so would fit well...everything is very vintage at the moment, so goes well!

I pick up the cupcakes tomorrow morning at 11am, asked for pink/turq colours with buttercream..mm, can't wait...

Then I will be popping in to Corina corina, warwick, with my jewellery, so that all worked out well..
yey...I will post a pic of the cupcakes on saturday! x

Found the wire guardians

Found them! yey, so I can make tonight as planned...let's hope theo is reading this too! remember theo, sleep at 7.30pm please...so mummy can work!

4 more galleries to supply...and one tired family.

Hi all,
I've got 4 galleries left to supply, so over half way through..unless more request some!

Seems to have taken forever! Probably because my son has given us a run for our money this week with waking up for an hour or two each night at silly o'clock...just crying..not sure why, might be his cough, might be teething, might be lonely...as always who knows!
So our household is running on empty this week!

I have a free night tonight to work, so as soon as theo is asleep, it's on with the show! altho now I've misplaced the silver wire guardians (to non-beaders, that is the pieces that you use to finish the ends of jewellery, to provide a metal support/holder for the illusion wire to stop it from fraying around the toggle clasp..google them if you want to know more). So anyway, it means that unless I find them, I can't finish the end of any of my pieces..making them complete!
So I will be searching the lounge for them this nap time, then hopefully working tonight, altho theo is only sleeping at 8pm now, (who knows why, I blame the clocks!) so that leaves around 2hrs to work.

I am dropping some pieces in to www.corinacorina.com Warwick, (vintage clothing/accessories) on saturday morning, so that's another out the way as such..
And then I'm hoping to pop into the Kenilworth Handmade Market see www.handmadekenilworth.co.uk..in St John's Church hall, Kenilworth 10-4pm saturday..as I want to hold a stall there soon...maybe august! as always lots to do and not enough time to do it!

Daisy Green Magazine...(their front page of their website!!)

Yey, I'm on the front of the website for daisy green magazine.co.uk, and a link to the full article here...for my daisy chain collection! http://www.daisygreenmagazine.co.uk/fashion/daisy-picks/daisy-loves-daisy-chains

They love my daisy chain pendant, they contacted me a couple of months ago saying they wanted to feature it, so I've been waiting, and here it is! you can buy from my website for £35 for the necklace, all in sterling silver and a real freshwater pearl in the centre...so pretty and very vintage too...which is still soo on trend and doesn't seem to be going away...hooray for not so shabby chic! x

Buy it here...

MM...Roasted Parsnips...and Country Living Spring fair

Well I said I would blog again soon!

I just made some roasted veg/butternut soup and thought I would roast some parsnips with honey just to eating as a snack straight away as the soup is for tomorrow's dinner...and all I can say is YUMMY! why wouldn't you do this everything you cook anything in the oven! they are sooo good...ok, maybe the honey isn't the healthiest thing for my teeth (just had some fillings last week) but still, it's mostly healthy...isn't it one of my 5 a day! Well I ate a whole bowl and now I want more...but I haven't got any parsnips left to cook...boo! they are a bargain at the moment too, 60p for a bag of around 5 or 6 at that large chain supermarket I shall not name...bargain for something sooo delicious!

Anyways...I want to write about a few things as well as my yummy honey parsnips...

I must let you all know that I went to the Country Living Spring fair last thurs in London, at the Business Design centre, Islington, with my mum for a 'girly day'. I managed to waggle some free tickets as I want to exhibit with them in Spring 2012, and definately for christmas 2012, so wanted to see what the deal was and if it was right for my target market for my jewellery etc..

It was really lovely, I have to say that most of the fair was shabby chic homewares/accessories and scarves! and generally aimed at I guess the Country Living mag readers so, Ladies that lunch (middle aged well dressed ladies with lovely taste such as my mum). And so I did spend alot of the time trying to check if my mum REALLY needed another spotty teatowel, wicker basket or lace scarf but she did manage to get some lovely gifts and a really nice hat which was little more than she wanted to pay but was handmade and the colour was perfect too, made by BOO (Peak and Brim) Hats, Leicestershire, and it folds away, as it's cotton with strong stitching that keeps it's shape, so perfect for dressing up smart with a flower brooch or casual for the beach etc.

I would say that it's well worth a visit and if you book in advance I think the fair is only around £8 to Country Living readers, and we went by train which could have been only around £15 each if we haven't had a few problems with strikes etc!

I am still trying to decide whether the fair is right for my jewellery, the target market is definately right, but whether ladies really wanted to buy jewellery there is another thing...I think in the Spring (March) it seems to be more a time when you get your home pretty and lovely for summer etc (spring clean etc!). I would say most of the customers were buying homewares or scarves! maybe I need to start making scarves!! They were sooo popular and there were alot of stalls selling them too! But as my mum said, they are nice to add a bit of colour without having to change your whole outfit and as a side note, also disguise any middle aged tummies..which is handy too.

Thanks to Jules at Country Living for the tickets, we really enjoyed it and I will definitely be looking to exhibit for Christmas 2012, as I think 2011 is full for jewellery...boo hoo! I find the jewellery is definitely a good christmas gift so will probably lean towards that.

On another random note - I notice the other day (via a foodie email I get) that there are these new fad things called CAKE POPS! google them..they are very cute and such a great idea..

If have yet to try them, but if they are as good as they look, they should be amazing...the original Cake Pop website, does all different animals, colours, designs to suit every taste and party theme...

So if anyone is wanting to treat me, please feel free! or if you have tried them, then please comment or mesg me as to what they are like!
I also noticed similar at Millies Cookies and in Starbucks (or was it Costa Coffee?) the other day, so they must have stolen their idea as they weren't branded, but more their own take on them, looking exactly alike tho!! cheeky...

I am going to be posting some more blogs about various things like other handmade people that make lovely things and also of course food ideas and things that I enjoy to do in life etc, so watch this space for more ramblings...

Bye for now..x

First Blog post! woo..

Hi all,

This is my first official blog post for my jewellery and lots more..
I will be blogging about craft fairs/shows, other jewellers, fashion, everyday things, my family, food and much more... so keep checking back, as I hope to blog at least once a week!
So here goes....

I have just finished my new summer collections and am just putting them onto the website for you lovely people to be able to buy...

I have been inspired this year by (as always) florals...and also the sea and bright summery shades!
The collections for Summer 2011 are -

Vintage Porcelain
This is made from lovely porcelain beads in white with dainty flowers etched onto them, in pink, blue, navy, purple and red...and possibly yellow in a couple of months too...
I have complemented these pretty beads with the Karen Hilltribe silver woven balls, as featured in Silverberry Collection, I love them and think the combination of the textures works really well. There are also lots of lovely freshwater pearls and crystals in between each bead combination, so full of vintage luxury too.

Summer of Love
This collection is fab everyday summer jewellery, created with bright coloured shell pieces and millefiori glass chips, choose your favourite mix! All finished with a Karen Hilltribe solid silver heart & toggle of course!
They are so great as they go with every colour you wear! Yey!

Seashell
A stunning real slice of shell edged in sterling silver is the focal for this collection. I have complemented each one with freshwater pearls and sparkly silver lined beads. Once again, finished with Karen Hilltribe silver toggle clasp. Oh I do like to be beside the seaside...la..la, grab one for that summer's day at the beach!

Silverwave
Waves of the ocean created in swirling sterling silver, featuring cute glass dagger beads in varying shades, lilacs, pinks, blues etc..These pieces are one of my fav's as they are very unique (handwoven by myself!) and are beautiful focal pieces for wearing with that little black dress!

I also have my other collections available including Lush Lariats (long leather necklaces dappled with freshwater pearls) Perfect for wrapping around your wrist too!

New Galleries/Retailers
I have spent the last month (Feb) phoning over 500 retailers and galleries regarding my new summer collection, as I'm fairly new to wholesale/retail selling! so it's all a very steep learning curve..I'm much more used to direct selling to my customers at shows and fairs..
Anyway, after many many phone calls and a quite a few disappointments, esp as I've now realised that most retailers buy in January! I managed to secure 5 new galleries and shops for my summer collection to find a home...so that you can all pop in and buy some..
(see stockists on here for weblinks/addresses)

Compton Verney - A very posh old manor house, now a fab gallery with beautiful grounds, perfect for a summer's picnic..They have a shop selling all things sparkly and gifty, and they wanted my collections! woo..
They are currently stocking - Lush Lariats, I Love Pearls, Vintage Porcelain and Summer of Love collections.

Walnut Tree Gallery - A lovely little gallery, selling all things handmade. They are currently only selling Summer of Love (millefiori) collection here, so grab it while you can!

Corina Corina - A vintage boutique in Warwick. Full of 1940's/50's/60's dresses, accessories and other pretty vintage pieces. Currently stocking a mix selection of my latest summer collections, and only 20mins from where I live!

NumberFour Gallery - Fab gallery selling all things handmade again from some amazing designers. Currently stocking Vintage Porcelain, Charmed Romance and I Love Pearls collections. My first outlet in Scotland so far!

Wave7 Gallery - By the sea indeed...this gallery is in Port Isaac, Cornwall, so do pop in while on your summer holidays! They are currently stocking a mix selection of my latest summer collections.

Watch this space as I am expecting more galleries/shops to be stocking my collections in the next couple of months too!!! so there should be a shop near to all my customers soon enough!

If you love what I make, please feel free to ask around at local galleries/boutiques near you and see if they would like to stock my work.. Email/contact me and I can send samples to you or the gallery direct..
There's a gift of £50 to spend on jewellery for everyone who secures me a new outlet!

Bye for now!
Ooo...check out my new events listings to see if I'm at a fair/event near you this summer and come and say hi!!

More blog posts soon...hehe..